Tag Article | Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House

What does the ABS Clearing-House do?

  10 Oct 2018

Facilitates connections between users and providers of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

The  ABS Clearing-House allows providers to share information on contacts, procedures and requirements for accessing genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Users can use the ABS Clearing-House to easily find information how to access these resources in an organized manner, and all in one convenient location. By providing access to reliable information the ABS Clearing-House facilitates the connection between users and providers of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and therefore promotes opportunities to develop fair and equitable ABS agreements.

Helps users to comply with ABS measures and requirements.

By sharing reliable information regarding national procedures and requirements on ABS, countries can help users of their genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge understand and follow ABS rules and facilitate users’ compliance with national legislation.

Provides tools to help monitor the utilization of genetic resources.

Through a centralized and standardized system the ABS Clearing-House plays a key role in helping providers monitor how their genetic resources are being used throughout the value chain. When a provider country grants access to a genetic resource and publishes information on the permit or its equivalent, the ABS Clearing-House automatically generates an internationally recognized certificate of compliance (IRCC).

The IRCC provides evidence a permit or its equivalent was issued and that the user has complied with the provider country's ABS rules and procedures. The IRCC can facilitate users of genetic resources to provide the required information to the checkpoints established along the value chain. The information collected or received by checkpoints is then published on the  ABS Clearing-House in a format called a checkpoint communiqué (CPC). The ABS Clearing-House makes this information publicly available and also sends the checkpoint communiqué, as an email, to alert all those involved in the process, and most importantly the Party providing prior informed consent (the provider country), to inform them of the utilization taking place. These tools have been set up in this way in order to allow for monitoring to be possible even when genetic resources leave the provider country's jurisdiction.

Offers reliable and up-to-date information.

The information available on the ABS Clearing-House follows secure publishing procedures. These procedures ensure that users have access to accurate information on ABS, making the process of access and utilization of genetic resources more fair, transparent and reliable.

Promotes awareness-raising and capacity-building for the Nagoya Protocol.

The ABS community can use the ABS Clearing-House to share experiences in implementing the Nagoya Protocol, capacity-building resources, communication materials and publications on ABS to a wider audience. In this way, the ABS Clearing-House plays an important role in building capacity to implement the Protocol and providing easy access to best practices, lessons learned and materials.

Promotes efficiencies in developing capacity-building projects and materials for the Nagoya Protocol

Countries and organizations can share information on their projects, resources and materials for building capacity for the Nagoya Protocol. Having all available information in a single place can help organizations and countries to learn from other projects, to create synergies both at the design and implementation stage of projects and avoid the duplication of efforts in capacity-building activities and materials.

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